Etymology

servant

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Today it means: One who is hired to perform regular household or other duties, and receives compensation. As opposed to a slave. Full definition →

Middle English servaunt ← Old French servant
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The story

  1. Old French · derived fromservant
  2. Middle English · inherited fromservaunt
  3. English todayservant

From Middle English servaunt, from Old French servant, from the present participle of the verb servir. Doublet of sergeant and servient. Morphologically serve + -ant. Displaced native Old English þeġn.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.